


The Sun Never Sets

by FiresofAnarchy



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Complicated Relationships, Depression, Family, Goodbyes, Infighting, Loneliness, Multi, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Plotting, Possession, Resurrection, Retirement, Second Chances, Self Loathing, Suicidal Thoughts, Unplanned Pregnancy, life on the run
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2018-11-14 19:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11214594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresofAnarchy/pseuds/FiresofAnarchy
Summary: A collection of one shots featuring various characters from Wynonna Earp.





	1. Something Salvageable

**Author's Note:**

> So, this wasn't a show I ever particularly had an interest in watching until I saw the advertisements for season 2 while watching Dark Matter. Since season 1 was on Netflix and other shows I have to catch up on weren't I decided to binge it in one day and prepare to watch it live for 2x02 which I intend to do later. As far as my thoughts on the show go I actually ended up liking it more than I thought I would. I mean it's agonizingly morally black and white at some times and overly hypocritically morally grey at others. And as far as the relationships go absolutely none of them are doing it for me. Dolls is the blandest bland that's ever blanded and he's just not the type of character I like characters I like to get with hence me not liking him and Wynonna. As far as Wynonna/Doc and Waverly/Haught go I almost feel like they should be reversed. In my opinion Wynonna had more chemistry with Haught in that one drunk scene than Waverly's had with her the whole show. And Doc and Waverly is something I find much more believable than him and Wynonna though I think either of them being with him is weird for obvious reasons. And Willa/Bobo was disgusting and stupid and I'm glad I never have to see it on my TV again. And speaking of Willa I think they blew what could have been an interesting storyline with her by first making her in love with Bobo in the first place and then again by having Wynonna just shoot her as if she were any other villain hence the direction for this first chapter. Despite that I still like the overall storyline of the show so far which is more than I can say for a lot of things I watch and look forward to more. I was listening to Damn Girl by The All-American Rejects while writing this, a song which I think describes Willa pretty well.

She hadn’t been meant to be the Earp heir, she was an option borne out of necessity fumbling her way through the job. She was the black sheep of the family who was supposed to be traversing her way across Europe doing the things and people that came easiest to her and not giving a fuck about any of it. Regardless of whether the demons turned out to be real she was certifiably crazy, had the paperwork and everything, and didn’t do meaningful interactions with people very well. Now though, as she stared down her recently returned older sister who had lived a much harder life than she could have ever imagined, she knew she was right where she needed to be.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You can come back across the line and we can start again.”

“Why would I do that,” her sister said smirking. “This is even better than I planned.”

It had looked like it was going to be another staring contest to see who would break first, but despite how bad it may have looked to the outside Wynonna didn’t feel any real danger. Her sister was still in there somewhere, maybe not as much as Willa had put on when they had initially found her, but in there nonetheless. It was up to her to draw that Willa back out from behind the curtain of lies and false love that Bobo had fed her over the years. At least that had been her plan until Dolls shot her and sent her right into the clutches of the approaching tentacle monster.

After that particular action that she was going to have a stern discussion with Dolls about when this was done, her plan consisted of simply saving her sister now and figuring out the rest once the world wasn’t under threat from a demon apocalypse. The monster picked Willa up and there weren’t many options available to her so she just aimed and hoped that Peacemaker could save the Earp family one more time. She shot at the monster and for a brief moment it appeared that nothing had happened until where the creature had once been bright fire began consuming it until it dissolved. Willa fell to the ground and without even a second thought she ran towards her and scooped her up bridal style and swiftly began walking back towards everyone else again.

Dolls had one of those looks on his face that she could never quite read as he said, “You should put her down, you have no idea what she’s capable of when she wakes up.”

“She’s my sister and I’m not leaving her behind,” she said sternly.

“No she’s not Wynonna,” he said. “When is that going to get through your head.”

“About the same time you stop acting like you control me,” she said. “If you want her you’re going to have to shoot me.”

She began walking back towards town after that as she heard Doc say, “Well I reckon that if Wynonna thinks her kin still salvageable then who are we to stand in her way.”

Waverly didn’t comment out loud but Wynonna could feel her disapproving stare on her back and didn’t much care. This was her sister too and she deserved to get to know the real her, they both did. The Willa they had known was gone, but some fraction of her still existed within the framework of the jaded person in her arms and she was going to find a way to coax it out. They made it back to the house with only minor interruption and she laid Willa in her own bed and began a steady watch, waiting for whatever woke up and preparing for all scenarios.

The eyes that greeted her as she stood leaning against the far wall when that moment finally came were kinder than the ones that Willa had been sporting previously but still not entirely normal. It was progress, but she still kept ready for anything. She hadn’t saved her sister from the clutches of a monster just to kill her, but she wasn’t stupid and would use whatever nonlethal methods she could to subdue her if things turned ugly again. Bobo was still out there somewhere and the right word or action could still turn her into what she had been before Dolls shot her. As her sister woke up however it wasn’t a move towards Wynonna that she made but a move away from her as in terror.

“What did you do,” Willa said cowering.

“Saved you,” she said. “You’re welcome by the way.”

“No this isn’t right,” Willa said. “You should have just left me there.”

“You’re my sister Wills,” she said trying a smile. “I wasn’t just going to leave you behind.”

“I’m not your Willa though Wynonna, I’m different, broken,” Willa said. “You shouldn’t trust me.”

“Trust you, no way,” she said. “Believe there’s something still salvageable inside you, yes I do.”

“You shouldn’t,” Willa said.

“Yeah that’s what everyone keeps saying,” she said. “But I do so you’re all just going to have to get used to it.”

“What are you going to do with me,” Willa questioned.

“Keep you here for now, watch you, until you’ve proven my hunch right,” she said. “Dolls or Officer Haught may shoot you behind my back if we’re not careful though.”

“Which reminds me,” she said moving closer to the bed. “How’s your wound?”

“Fine,” Willa said as if she was just noticing it for the first time. “I think.”

“That’s good,” she said. “You sit tight, I have to go have a chat with Dolls.”

She made sure to lock the door behind her as much to keep Willa in as to keep the others out. She was handcuffed to the bed, but it was best to play it as safe as possible. She didn’t need a bloodbath when she had already put so much effort into keeping everyone that mattered to her alive. Dolls was sitting at a table checking his guns when she found him, but didn’t offer so much as a glance in her direction until she was practically on top of him. She had a history of running from her problems, but now she was going to face them head on and say what she needed to say, letting the chips fall where they may.

“You shot her,” she began.

“I did,” he said stoically. “She was a threat.”

“She’s my sister,” she said.

“No she’s not, she’s a fractured echo of your sister at best and a brainwashed psychopath at worst,” he said. “Either way, she should have been put down.”

“My sister is still in there and if you hurt her again you won’t like the results,” she said.

“I think we both know how that fight would turn out,” he said. “You’ve made your position clear, I think we’re done here.”

“Good,” she said frustrated at his nonchalance over the whole thing. He was like talking to a brick wall sometimes.

She was never meant to be the Earp heir, that was Willa’s destiny and she was just a marginally successful substitute. Like it or not though Peacemaker had made it clear that it had chosen her and she was going to take on the task with the same vigor that she had been since the beginning. Helping her sister find her humanity again though was a job that only she could do. Dolls might not like it, Waverly might not like it, hell even Willa might not like it, but she had never cared about what people thought about her and her actions before and she wasn’t about to start now. Her sister was still alive and if she had to go to the ends of the Earth to get her even marginally back to something resembling a thinking, feeling person then she was going to do it. It wasn’t in her nature to just give up on someone she cared about, no matter how far gone they appeared.


	2. Surrounded and Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So 2x02 was a great episode despite the relationship stuff I couldn't care less about. I'm glad that they're showing how Wynonna isn't completely fine after everything that's happened. She's so obviously broken and the whole episode I just wanted someone to put themselves aside for one minute and show that they were there for her, but it never really happened. So here's a chapter of what Wynonna may be thinking in that regard. I was listening to All These Things That I've Done by The Killers while writing this which I think describes Wynonna pretty well.

The Black Badge division in Purgatory was a much more bustling place now that the higher ups in the agency had decided to take a direct interest in the project. Lucado wasn’t her favorite person but she ran a tight ship and didn’t stand for any bullshit, even from her. Whatever resources they needed were suddenly pouring in and Wynonna felt that she was finally seeing what working for a secret government black ops agency was really like. She was surrounded by people that all knew about demons and were willing and able to help her with anything she needed and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling of being utterly and completely alone.

Dolls was gone, off somewhere avoiding Black Badge, and with his bosses even more involved on site it wasn’t looking like he’d be coming back around for a while. Doc was up to something, she didn’t know exactly what yet, but knowing him it probably wouldn’t end well and she’d have to clean up his mess again. And while Waverly was still around for the most part she was spending more and more time with her new girlfriend and was increasingly distant even when she did turn up. The influx of new people weren’t exactly the kind of people she was used to interacting with and so she tried to keep her distance and let Lucado deal with them.

The Earp curse was ultimately hers to deal with and she did prefer being alone to working with crowds of people, but this aloneness wasn’t entirely out of her own choosing and it didn’t leave her feeling the good kind of alone that she was used to. Before everything with Bobo and Willa went down she had actually felt the happiest she had felt since the day the homestead was attacked. She and Dolls had built something from the ground up with the Black Badge division in Purgatory and the small team they had assembled had actually begun to feel as such and operate like a well-oiled machine. There had also been the hope that she could get at least a part of the family she had lost back from the clutches of death that kept her going, but that was all gone now.

Now with the immediate threat resolved, Dolls no longer around, and Black Badge corporate sticking their noses in everything it didn’t feel like the team they had built, it didn’t feel like a family. She was quickly realizing that Doc, Waverly, and even Dolls if he ever decided he was done with Black Badge could all go and move on with their lives to bigger and better things, but she couldn’t. She was the heir whether she wanted to be or not and that meant that she was as trapped as the Revenants were. If she left, the bad ones would wreak havoc unchecked and that would make her as good as guilty by association and guilt was one of the few things she didn’t need more of.

She could have let Willa go, could have let her bring down the boundary between the Triangle and the rest of the world and not given a fuck. She could have let Purgatory burn and walked away free from all of it. But wielding Peacemaker and putting down a few Revenants had made her feel like a hero and think that she could fix everything herself. Could she have talked Willa back over the line, she wasn’t sure. Could she have shot her if she had never been taken by the monster, even less so. But none of that had been an option after Dolls opened fire and made the choice for her. She was still angry about that and he wasn’t even around for her to lash out at.

The truth was that she wasn’t a hero, despite the confident persona she still tried to put forward every day she didn’t have all the answers and was just winging it half the time and hoping for the best results. None of them except Waverly knew that she was seeing things. None of them knew that she cried herself to sleep every night thinking about the father and sister she had lost by her own hand. She needed help, professional help again if she was being completely honest with herself, but instead she was left alone to continue to make the same mistakes and then have them haunt her in the aftermath.

If she had never come home for Uncle Curtis’s funeral, never left the safe confines of Greece, she could still be feeling the good kind of alone and wouldn’t have to deal with any of this. She could be drinking her way through every bar in the country and maybe even a little beyond, fucking whoever caught her eye and not having to deal with any strings. She wouldn’t have to deal with resurrected outlaws or shady government organizations or the emotional weight of killing her own sister. Her life could be simple and safe instead of dangerous and emotionally draining. But she had come back to Purgatory after years of telling herself and everyone else that she never would and now she had to face the consequences. 

It wasn’t all bad, the donuts were still amazing and after his speech defending her from Bobo’s mob of townspeople things between her and Sherriff Nedley were actually going pretty well. And Black Badge hadn’t exactly made things worse yet, Lucado’s attention to detail and the extra resources from corporate were actually taking some of the pressure from the more mundane worries off of her. It wasn’t even that it was bad at all per se, it just wasn’t the same as it had been. Everything had seemed so simple back when it all first started, find a Revenant that was wreaking havoc and shoot them in the head. She had never expected that both her personal and professional lives would become even more destroyed by her own hand than they already had been, if she had she would have never come back.

She had to keep pushing forward though. Her personal feelings were irrelevant in the face of Revenants, Black Badge, and whatever else Willa and Bobo had allowed into Purgatory. She had to be an unmoving force standing strong in the face of evil or at least pretend to be as long as was necessary. She wasn’t a hero, wasn’t even close to one, and couldn’t pretend to be if she wanted to, but she was all the people of Purgatory had and it wasn’t in her nature to back down from a challenge. A day where she could finally be free from it all might eventually come around at some point in the distant future, but for the foreseeable, immediate chaos no one else was going to step up so she had to.

She had never been anyone’s first choice. She was the problem child that brought shame on the family name of a family with a lot of problem children. She was broken and wasn’t getting anymore mentally or emotionally stable given recent events. She wasn’t even the first choice to be the Earp heir, none of this had been destined to be her problem, but it was her problem now and being second best wasn’t as bad as it seemed after a life of that constantly being your reality. She wasn’t what anyone would ever choose their savior or protector to be, but she did have the gun that could send demons back to Hell and a lot of people with a lot less had gotten a lot farther with just a big gun. She just needed to find out where she fit in that lineage and do her job, even if she had to do it surrounded by the shell of what had been and alone in what came after.


	3. The Witch Is Not Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly not sure what this is other than something I needed to get out of my head before I lost it. Like I'm 99 % sure Constance is going to come back for Doc at some point, but I can most assuredly say this is probably not going to happen. But that sexual tension, you could have cut it with a knife in that canon scene. This probably isn't my best piece of writing, but these two had more chemistry than the canon couples do, at least in my opinion, and nobody's written them so here I am. I was listening to Rock n Roll Train by AC/DC while writing this.

It felt good to finally be out of that infernal salt prison that Doc Holliday and his new favorite Earp had imprisoned her in, it had been so long since she had stretched her physical and magical muscles. Doc Holliday was going to rue the day that he let the heir talk him into not just killing her. From what she gathered since returning to freedom the heir had already put an end to Bobo so she couldn’t take out her anger at the deaths of her boys on him so Doc would just have to serve as a punching bag for all of that too. She just needed to attend to one other matter first.

She wasn’t exactly what someone would call a sentimental person, certainly not sentimental enough to try to resurrect someone. Resurrection wasn’t the kind of magic that one undertook lightly, even a witch as powerful and old as herself, and performing it with a human was a different proposition than it had been with her sons. You always lost a piece of yourself whenever you performed such a powerful spell and while there wasn’t much of herself left that she cared about no one had ever been worthy of such sacrifice before. There was one person though that had ignited equally intense feelings of passion and anger in her since the day they met. The Blacksmith would prove useful in aiding her pursuit of Doc Holliday anyways; probably.

It was a relatively simple task to find the location of the remains of the woman who called herself the Blacksmith. Holliday and the Earps wouldn’t have risked bringing her body into any public morgue or funeral home, so it was either at the Earp homestead or her own workshop. The Earp homestead would be too suspicious of a location to find a random person’s body if the authorities not loyal to the Earps and Black Badge started snooping around so it was settled, she could always double back if it turned out she was wrong. She very much doubted that she was wrong.

The Blacksmith’s workshop had always intrigued her though seeing it without the presence of the woman who usually occupied it gave it a more haunting visage. The Blacksmith was always working on some sort of project and if you didn’t trip her defenses first it was possible to hear her hard at work shaping metal and building various types of machinery, now it just seemed like a ghost town. It didn’t take her long to find the burial site however and without another second’s hesitation she began the ritual. When it was all said and done she was met with familiar eyes and looks of shock and confusion as the woman laid on the ground regaining her bearings in the world of the living before standing up.

“Constance,” the Blacksmith said shifting away from her slightly. “What did you do?”

“I saved you darling,” Constance said. “You’re welcome.”

“You killed me,” the other woman said.

“And now I’ve brought you back,” she said. “I’d say that makes us even.”

“We’re not even close to even and you know it,” the other woman said.

“Fine, throw your pity party all you want,” she said. “You always were big on the dramatics.”

“You’re one to talk,” the other woman said. “Resurrection isn’t exactly something one does if they want to stay under the radar.”

“Well,” she said pressing the other woman up against the wall. “You’re the best fuck I’ve had in centuries and it’s been so long since you’ve let me play.”

“Constance,” the other woman gritted out. “You obviously brought me back for a reason so you should drop the charade and just get on with telling me what it is.”

“Well first I’m going to fuck you,” she said in a seductive tone. “It really has been too long."

“After that we can discuss how you’re going to help me make Doc Holliday wish he was still down in that well,” she said normalizing her tone again.

“What,” the other woman said confused.

“Doc Holliday thought he could get rid of me by putting me in a salt prison, but I’m out now and he’s going to wish he had just killed me,” she said.

“Why didn’t he listen to me,” the other woman said angrily.

“The Earp heir talked him out of that plan,” she said. “It was expertly conceived though darling.”

“I died for nothing,” the other woman said despondent.

“But now I’ve brought you back,” she said. “We should make the most of it before we try to kill each other again.”

“I can’t help you hurt Doc,” the other woman protested even as she was pulled along willingly.

“Nonsense darling,” she said seductively as she brought the other woman down on the bed on top of her. “We both know how much you love playing both sides.”

“You killed me,” the other woman repeated her earlier statement even as she straddled her and moved to take off her own shirt.

“Maybe you should make me pay for it then darling,” she said seductive tone remaining. “Show me how angry you are with me.”

“Oh I will,” the other woman said before finally leaning down and giving her the physical contact she had wanted again for so long.

As a witch that had been around for almost 200 years she had seen and done everything when it came to sex and she hadn’t been lying about what she said in the previous conversation. No other partner and no other act could give her the same pleasure that having this fiery, infuriating woman on top of her could. Bobo had been a minor distraction and adequate, but this was what pure bliss felt like. And if the other woman turned just a little bit more morally grey after each of their encounters, well that was just a bonus.

The morning after had never been her favorite part of a sexual encounter, even when she wasn’t an immortal witch. There were always awkward conversations and the putting on of clothes as one person stumbled out of the room and back out into the real world, all of it laced with emotions that were best left to being worried about at a different moment, preferably far in the future. But this morning after meant that it hadn’t all been some salt delirium induced sex dream. She had gotten out of her prison, she had resurrected the Blacksmith, she had thoroughly fucked and been fucked by said woman, and she was going to enlist said woman’s help in making Doc Holliday wish he was still stuck in a well. This morning was definitely a good morning.

“Now,” she said once the other woman was also awake and alert. “Doc Holliday.”

“I don’t know what you think I’ll be able to help you with in that department,” the other woman said.

“Don’t play stupid darling, you’re much too smart for that,” she said. “You gave him a way to kill me so it’s only fair you give me a way to kill him.”

“I might need more incentive,” the other woman said smirking.

“That can be arranged,” she said already moving to straddle her. Pillowtalk about murder had always turned her on anyways.


	4. Better Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually began writing this chapter after episode 3 but couldn't quite get it right until after episode 4. I liked episode 3 more than episode 4 overall. The stuff with Nedley and Haught was just so good. Episode 4 wasn't bad per se though I'm not sure how to feel about the demon being in Wynonna now instead of Waverly despite how heavily that features in this chapter. It'll be interesting sure but I kind of wanted to see Wynonna deal with another messed up sister and the emotions that entailed. I also thought the whole thing with the hand was stupid and a cop out, but whatever. I'm enjoying Jeremy and Rosita so far and am actually really feeling Rosita/Doc as a thing, but we'll see. And possessed Mercedes is my favorite thing on the show right now though I hope she goes back to normal eventually and doesn't die. Anyways, here's more depressed Wynonna with a side of possession. I was listening to Autoclave by The Mountain Goats while writing this. We'll see where the inspiration takes me next.

The entire time since they got back from trying to rescue Dolls from the Black Badge facility Haught had been trying to tell her that something was up with Waverly, that she tasted different, whatever that meant. Dolls had told her after he made his way back to them that he noticed something in her eyes and that she should keep her guard up. Even Waverly had begun to voice concerns that she had blackouts where she couldn’t remember her actions. Nevertheless, with her own concerns and the concerns of everyone else rising she hadn’t been able to see the threat until it was too late, something that the demon that was inside of her now loved to rub in her face.

The demon had been transferred to her through a kiss. She had been weak and indecisive enough to let a demon-possessed version of her sister get close enough to kiss her. A hero would have used Peacemaker to kill Waverly and thus the demon no matter the personal sacrifice. She had played the hero before, shooting her father, shooting Shorty, shooting Willa, and she just couldn’t do it anymore. In the end, despite the circumstances thrust upon her, Wynonna Earp wasn’t a hero, just a broken woman playing at being one so she could avoid having to face her own shortcomings. The truth was that she had never been able to protect the people she cared about no matter how hard she tried, another fact that the demon was all too happy to pound into her mind again and again.

That was why she had distanced herself from Perry after everything that went down at the Purgatory High reunion. She was the broken one just like she said, even after everything he went through he had no idea what being truly broken was like. He was doing well for himself, whether it was from the demon or not, and he needed to get on with his life without getting tangled up in the Hell that was Hurricane Wynonna. She had pushed him away as firmly as she could because the last thing she needed was another person she cared about getting tangled up in her mess. Removing herself from their lives had been the only thing that worked the last time she had tried to protect those she cared about and maybe it would work again.

She had left Purgatory as soon as she could despite the doctors warning her that the support of friends and family was necessary to recovery. Without her around Waverly had managed to turn out okay, wasn’t a pariah like she was and was much smarter than she could ever hope to be. But like the dark clouds appearing ominously overhead before a storm, her return to the town she had promised herself again and again that she would never come back to signaled only pain and suffering for those close to her. Her life had left a wake of destruction in the lives of the people closest to her and despite all of her exploits with Peacemaker she hadn’t been able to escape that reality.

It had started with her parents. They had probably wanted a nice, loving family with as much normalcy as being an Earp could afford at one point in their lives, but that had never been her experience growing up. An abusive, controlling father and a mother that grew more and more distant as the years went by weren’t exactly the examples they put into parenting books. And then her mother just up and disappeared one day never to come back and it had just been her father left to turn more and more of his abuse towards his children. Perhaps being the middle child, overlooked and without special consideration within the family dynamic, had protected her from the worst of it as his fury was instead turned on Willa and Waverly.

Then the Revenants came to attack the Homestead and her first foray into trying to be a hero ended with her shooting her own father and being unable to stop her sister from being taken. She became the crazy girl that shot her own father and claimed to have seen demons after that and was sent to facility after facility and doctor after doctor until they were convinced she was sane enough to rejoin society. All the while Willa was experiencing a fate worse than death at the hands of Bobo Del Rey and Constance Clootie. Despite feeling more sure of herself in that moment than at any point in her life she hadn’t been able to draw enough from the fountain of heroics to talk her sister back when she finally confronted her. In the end killing her family seemed to be one of the only things she was good at.

Even Dolls, a soldier through and through, who had seen action with enemies both human and demon his entire life was unable to escape the pull of her storm. Now he was wanted by the organization that had once called him a comrade in arms and on the verge of reverting into a monster. Doc and his new accomplice Rosita had been able to make some of his serum from scratch but that was only one vial. And if Dolls ever got captured by Black Badge she was sure that they would cut him off for good. They had built a family at the Black Badge division in Purgatory, but just like her blood family it was now a ruin of what it had once been.

Now there was a demon inside of her and it had again been right about her. She wasn’t a fighter, not really, she was a strong façade on top of a foundation that had been crumbling since the day she was born. Even if she wanted to she couldn’t have fought it, it was stronger than anything she had faced before, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. Waverly and the rest of them were smart enough to find a way to defeat the demon without her and whatever havoc it wreaked while inside her body could eventually be fixed. Fighting it from within would only be another attempt to make herself the hero that she wasn’t and she had seen too many times before how that ended up to be stupid enough to try it again.

No, she could only sit back, watch, and listen to the demon throw all of the shortcomings that she had tried hiding from back at her. It was a punishment that she didn’t fight, a punishment that she deserved. She was toxic to everyone around her and had been naïve to think that she could return after three years and try to fix everything in her life. Her parents, her sisters, her friends, anyone that had ever taken a positive interest in her had only had their own lives destroyed instead. Having the demon in control of her physical body and being trapped inside of her own head was perhaps even a blessing in disguise for those that she cared about who were still left. 

Perhaps, like the demon kept telling her, they were better off without her around at all. If she had to die in order for the demon to be stopped she hoped that her friends wouldn’t hesitate like she had with Waverly. Her death wouldn’t leave the world worse off, perhaps it would even make it better. She wasn’t a hero, just a broken woman who had only ever been good at destroying the lives of those close to her. Waverly would be a much better heir than she ever could hope to be, Dolls wouldn’t have to spend his time defending her, and Doc could move on with Rosita like it was obvious he wanted to. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if she just stopped fighting altogether and completely removed herself from the equation. Her brand of heroics certainly had never made things better for anyone before. They would all be just fine without Wynonna Earp to worry about.


	5. Adjustment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that last episode was great, possessed Wynonna was hilarious. Not sure we've seen the last of that demon thing and I still don't understand why she didn't shoot the big tentacle monster in the first place instead of killing Willa, but that's neither here nor there. Speaking of wasted characters though how about Lucado, I don't get what the point of that was at all other than to have a character die for the sake of dying. Now, the pregnancy, I have mixed feelings about it and what it means for Wynonna and the story. First off I don't think "The actress is pregnant and I wanted to make the character pregnant too just to make a statement" which is pretty much what the interview with the executive producer that one of the writers tweeted me said the reasoning behind that plot development was is the best way to write a good story, especially when shows like The Walking Dead have handled multiple real life pregnancies without hurting the characters or going that way with it just cause, but maybe that's just me. Also as someone who thinks they've diluted Wynonna's character a lot since the pilot already I just think this is going to lead to more of the same. And since the only potential human father is Doc and I hate that relationship anyways I'm not looking forward to all of that if it happens. Nevertheless it could be interesting, especially if it's not a natural baby so I'm going to reserve final judgement until we know more. Anyways here's my take on how Wynonna might be handling it and while I started this chapter out not knowing how I'd reach the 1000 word goal I set for myself it actually got way longer than I intended so there's that. I was listening to The Show Must Go On by Queen while writing this and I hope you like it.

Shorty’s, the bustling waterhole that had served Purgatory and the surrounding area dutifully since before the time of her famous great great grandfather, had always been a source of comfort and respite throughout her life and now was no different. The past few days had been rough with a demon first possessing her sister and then herself before transferring back to her sister again and on any other day she’d already be two or three drinks in just to celebrate the fact that she still had a finger if nothing else. Now though, as much as she looked around at the other happily drunk people and wanted to, because god did she want to, she couldn’t. She settled for just taking in the atmosphere and hoping that she could trust herself not to do anything stupid. This baby was counting on her and she was determined not to fail someone else who’s wellbeing was in her hands.

The good news was that she hadn’t seen Doc since she entered the establishment and she hoped it stayed that way. He was the most likely father and he deserved to know what was going on if that turned out to be the case, but she wanted to make sure before she said anything. Making sure would of course require her to snag a DNA sample without him knowing and she wasn’t sure how exactly she was going to go about that, but she would cross that bridge when she got to it. That wasn’t what right now was about, right now was about calming herself down without having to deal with Waverly’s mother hen approach even if she couldn’t drink herself into that calm state like she usually did. Seeing Doc would only lead to her trying to act like nothing was up and failing, him asking her what was wrong, and her having to decide whether to come clean or lie to his face.

It wasn’t like things would be easier if it turned out he wasn’t the father either because that opened up possibilities that were equally uncomfortable and possibly more dangerous. If the baby wasn’t Doc’s that meant that it wasn’t entirely natural or human and just that thought alone was enough to make her feel violated. The demon that had possessed her seemed surprised and disappointed to find out that she was pregnant so it didn’t seem like it had been responsible for that particular development, but she did only have Waverly’s recounting of events to go off of and that could have all just been a ruse in the first place so she couldn’t be sure. Any of the strange beings and objects that she had come into contact with over the course of being the heir could be responsible and if that was the case she was left with few definitive answers.

Shaking those thoughts out of her head for the moment she remembered where she was and why she was there and moved further into the establishment. She found a free spot on the wall and closed her eyes to take in the calming sounds of people trying their best to forget the world and block out their own problems if only for a brief moment. Perhaps if some drunk idiot saw her current state and tried to get handsy with her she’d have the particular satisfaction of knocking them on their ass. Fighting at all of course, whether it was a simple, handsy drunk or something she came up against in her capacity as heir, was something that she’d have to be more careful about now too. She couldn’t afford getting knocked on her own ass too many times without the potential for something going wrong with the baby. She threw her head back against the wall in exasperation and opened her eyes again, even the calming bar sounds weren’t enough to stop her mind from wandering to dark places.

Those kinds of thoughts had been exactly what she had been trying to avoid by coming to Shorty’s in the first place. Sitting against the bathroom door with a million worst case scenarios running through her head while Waverly offered empty comforts from the other side hadn’t been a tenable existence. Standing in a bar surrounded by people who had all been trying to kill her not that long ago and having the same thoughts rush through her mind wasn’t much better but beggars can’t be choosers. She had never pictured herself as a mother, still was pretty sure that she wasn’t cut out for it, and yet she was already feeling oddly protective about the baby she’d only known about for a few hours. Her life even before becoming the heir wasn’t ideal for a child to grow up in and now with the whirlwind that her life as the heir was she couldn’t see how the two things could coexist.

A part of her would always hate being the heir, how it had been forced upon her, and what she had had to do because of it, but another part of her loved the cowboy nature of that life and how free it made her feel. Purgatory still needed her as the heir and she was willing to do her best to protect the town and its people, but this baby needed her protection too now and she wasn’t confident that she could do both. Eventually a choice would have to be made and it wasn’t a choice where one option had a clear advantage over the other. She could keep the others in the dark about her pregnancy for a while, but eventually she wouldn’t be able to hide it and their concerned looks and words would make the situation even more real. Waverly was bad enough by herself and someone like Haught or Jeremy finding out wouldn’t exactly be fun to deal with, but she definitely wasn’t ready to deal with the combined onslaught of Doc and Dolls both treating her like she could break at any moment.

As her eyes scanned around the bar’s crowded interior, again trying to shake her mind from such thoughts she was surprised to find Dolls sitting at one of the barstools, being served an ever-increasing number of drinks by the always striking Rosita, who had no right looking that good around Doc while she was stressing over potentially being pregnant with his child. Luckily Doc was still nowhere to be seen and after a brief moment of indecision she swallowed her pride and made her way over to the bar. Dolls, who she could never picture as one to drink away his problems in a bar very often, was obviously stressed about something and she would be a terrible friend if she didn’t check on him to see what was up. Granted, she was a terrible friend, a terrible person in general, but the possibility of whatever was bothering him distracting her from her own racing mind was her best option at this point.

“Agent Dolls, I didn’t think Black Badge agents even knew how to throw back the booze like this” she said as she casually slumped into the seat next to him. “Clearly I was wrong.”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as Dolls’s expression soured noticeably. He slid a shot over to her and she eyed it nervously before pushing it aside.

“You don’t miss Lucado that much do you,” she said and even to her own ears that sounded terrible. “I get that you two had history but she was still a bitch.”

“Wait,” she continued because apparently she didn’t need to be drunk to say stupid things. “You guys didn’t used to release your tension in other ways did you because that mental image is just ew.”

“Wynonna stop,” Dolls said and thankfully he didn’t sound too mad. “Black Badge is gone Wynonna, the entire organization just disappeared into nothing.”

“What,” she said dumbfounded. “How did that happen?”

“I don’t know, but it’s gone Wynonna and that can’t mean anything good,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah, secret government organizations completely disappearing from the radar doesn’t exactly spell out sunshine and rainbows,” she said. “What are we going to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” he said again. “Jeremy just told me.”

“Whatever you need I’m there,” she said. “So why are you here then?”

“Mourning the organization and people I used to know,” he said raising another shot to his mouth. “Even if we find them it’s not likely that everything will be what it was.”

“Yeah I kind of got that after they captured and tortured you and turned this division into Lucado’s personal kingdom,” she said.

“She wasn’t as bad as you think she was,” he said. “And they had their reasons for what they did to me, however misguided they were.”

“This though,” he continued. “This speaks of something more sinister.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Well like I said, whatever you need I’m there.”

“Thank you,” he said. “You’re a good friend.”

“Doubtful,” she said. “You’re just drunk.”

When Dolls pushed another drink down her way she said, “I’d better get going before Waverly sends out a search party.”

“Of course,” he said giving her a strange look as he took back both that drink and the earlier one. “Be careful.”

“You’re the one I should be telling that to,” she said. “I haven’t had anything alcoholic to drink all day.”

“Yeah,” he said again giving her a strange look.

“Don’t party too hard agent,” she said before making a quick exit.

Dolls was suspecting something, even drunk, and that didn’t bode well for her secret-keeping, but for now they had bigger fish to fry. If Black Badge was gone that meant that they were free from their oversight, but that also left them on an island in the fight against the supernatural. It seemed only fitting that at the moment where her life was the most tumultuous that everything else got crazier too. This baby was going to be an adjustment no doubt, but whatever she had been thinking beforehand it was becoming increasingly clear that she couldn’t just take a step back and help with research or something until the pregnancy was over. She was the heir and she had a job to do and she wasn’t going to shy away from it. She just hoped that whatever happened her fears wouldn’t come to fruition because despite everything there was a part of her buried deep down in the recesses of her brain that was excited about this baby and what it could mean for her. She had never had hope for the future in her life before and she didn’t want the hope that was now growing inside of her to disappear while it was still in its own, fragile infancy.


	6. Rules of Engagement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the show got renewed for season 3. Hopefully that means that Killjoys and Dark Matter get renewed too since they have higher ratings. Syfy Fridays weren't the same after Defiance got canceled and I'd rather this lineup stayed intact as long as possible. Anyways, the baby's not Doc's or human which is good even though I still think the plotline overall is stupid. That's not what we're here to talk about though, we're here to talk about how much of an idiot Dolls is. I mean I already hated him in season 1 but in the beginning of this season he wasn't too bad. That whole thing with the time guy though was just so dumb. And then the next episode starts and he and Wynonna are all buddy buddy acting like nothing happened. Actually I don't understand how she didn't blow up on him about Willa before that, I understand he was captured and all, but he's been back a while and it should be brought up. Granted I don't understand why they're not focusing on that more in general especially after they did such a good job of showing her pain in the first couple of episodes this season, but apparently this baby storyline is more interesting to someone. So here's how I wish Wynonna would handle Dolls because I'm done with his holier than thou bullshit and think Wynonna should be too. Also, Rosita's in this since they won't make her part of the team for some reason. They really should have woken her up with Doc in the time episode and I don't understand why it didn't happen. I was listening to Have A Nice Day by Bon Jovi while writing this.

“Shit,” Wynonna muttered under her breath just loud enough to draw Rosita’s attention away from the other customers.

She had been sitting in Shorty’s enjoying the calm that the familiar bar offered her after a rough day where she had retraced her steps back to the drunken one night stand that had resulted in her current pregnancy and sent her child’s Revenant father back to Hell. Rosita hadn’t been serving her anything alcoholic for obvious reasons and in light of said retracing of steps and the revelations it brought that was probably a good idea for more than just the baby’s safety. Still, she had been having a good time without anyone else too familiar around to ask her questions she wasn’t ready to answer or offer empty comforts about the death of a man she couldn't care less about. The sight of a vaguely familiar face from an even worse day however, shattered the calm that had developed and provoked her to utter the familiar curse. 

“What,” the biochemist turned mixologist said startled. “Is there something wrong with the water?”

“No, no, just,” she stuttered out in response before pointing over to the woman who had captured her attention. “How long has she been here?”

“Poppy,” Rosita said confused. “She’s been coming here every night this week drinking until she gets cut off, I think her father just died.”

“Yeah I know,” she said lowering her voice a fraction. “I killed him.”

“Oh,” recognition flashed across the other woman’s face. “He was a demon then.”

“Yeah,” she said despondent. “That’s what I do, kill demons.”

“You don’t sound too happy about that,” Rosita said.

“He was one of the good ones, wasn’t hurting anyone intentionally,” she said. “He just wanted to protect his daughter and Dolls made me kill him anyways.”

“Have you talked to him about this,” the other woman asked as she began wiping off various dirty glasses with a towel.

Wynonna realized that she was distracting her from her work and said, “Don’t you have better things to get back to than sitting here listening to my problems.”

“Don’t you have better things to say to me than that half-assed attempt to dodge the question,” the other woman shot back with a smirk. “I’m not the only one that works here you know.”

“Ugh fine,” she conceded. “This would be so much easier with alcohol.”

“Yes it would but I can’t drink while I’m working and you have more important things to worry about,” Rosita said. “So we’re just going to have to make due.”

“No I haven’t talked to him about this,” she said. “I haven’t talked to anyone about this.”

“It’s a good thing I’m a good listener then,” the other woman said pointing at her ear in emphasis. “Comes with the job.”

“He made this whole big deal about how without Black Badge around we were freelancers and could do what we wanted and like an idiot I believed that that meant things would change,” she started. “But when it came time to make a choice about Poppy’s father he towed the party line just like he always has.”

“I had my doubts about this partnership from the beginning, but he threatened to arrest me so I took the path of least resistance and it was good for a while, not perfect but good,” she continued. “But when it mattered most he didn’t trust me and I ended up having to kill my own sister.”

“I’m not a partner to him at all, just a tool whose job it is to kill demons and kill demons indiscriminately at that,” she continued her tone rising. “And after a situation like the one with Poppy’s father he just goes back to acting like nothing happened, like we’re best friends.”

“He’s like an emotionless robot sometimes,” she finished.

“Okay okay,” Rosita said motioning her to quiet down. “We are in public, so let’s not give everyone a look at your dirty laundry.”

“They all hate me anyways,” she said despondent.

“That may or may not be true, but it’s best we don’t give them anymore reason to be distrustful of you,” Rosita said.

“Trust me,” she said. “It’s true and I don’t care.”

“Fine,” Rosita said. “Have you thought about trying to push against him more, it’s not like he can arrest you now if you don’t follow him blindly.”

“You are the one with the gun that can send demons to Hell,” the other woman continued smirking. “He needs you a lot more than you need him.”

“Huh, I never thought of it like that,” she said.

“Well now you have,” the other woman said. “Show him you won’t be walked all over and maybe he’ll start to see you for who and what you really are.”

“You’re good at this,” she said. “There’s not a psychology degree hiding in your closet too is there?”

“No,” the other woman said smiling. “But like I said the listening comes with the job and regardless I always try to help a friend in need.”

“Friend,” she said confused.

“We don’t have to be enemies just because we both slept with Doc, Wynonna,” the other woman said.

“Yeah, yeah okay,” she said. “I’d like that.”

“Oh my God,” Waverly’s voice echoed throughout the building and tore Wynonna’s attention away from the emotional moment. “I can’t believe you got to meet Bass Reeves, that is so awesome.”

“He was trying to kill me you know,” Doc replied.

“Details,” Waverly replied shooing her arm in his direction.

“I should let you get back to it,” she said turning her attention away from the two new entrants into her calm space for a moment. “Before the boss sees.”

“Yeah,” Rosita said smirking. “Wouldn’t want that.”

Wynonna made her way out of the familiar confines and back into the chaos of the world at large. She didn’t want to get in the middle of Waverly’s fangirling while it was still on in full force. She hadn’t seen Poppy around when she left and briefly felt nervous that she may have heard what she said about killing her father and was waiting to confront her, but quickly shook the thought off. She had bigger things to worry about, like how in the Hell she was going to put what she and Rosita had talked about into action. Despite everything she didn’t want to lose Dolls entirely so she had to thread the needle between stern and conciliatory. The drive home was a peaceful one that helped her gather her thoughts and by the time she got home she knew exactly what she was going to do. She found Dolls alone in the Black Badge division office the next day and decided that it was as good a time as any.

“Wynonna, what’s this,” Dolls said holding on to her necklace with a confused look on his face.

“Consider it my badge,” she said. “I’m undeputizing myself.”

“I don’t understand,” he said turning the necklace over.

“Yeah I didn’t think you would,” she said. “You know who I saw last night?”

“Who,” he questioned.

“Poppy,” she answered. “Putting back the booze like a woman with nothing to lose, which she apparently has been doing the past few days since we murdered her father.”

“He was a threat Wynonna,” he said. “We couldn’t take the risk of him being turned against us again.”

“He was a father,” she countered. “A better one than I ever had, a better one than Jonas could have ever hoped to be and you decided he needed to die anyways.”

“He did need to die,” he said. “What would have happened if he lived and was used to trap people like that again.”

“I don’t know and neither do you, but that’s not what mattered to you is it,” she said. “He was a demon, I’m a demon killer, and you were the chess master using the pieces available to you as you saw fit just like with Willa.

“The truth is that this has never been a partnership and I’m done pretending that it is one,” she continued. “I’m the one with the gun, that means I’m in charge and how I want to run this fight is how it’s going to be run, and if you have a problem with that you can take your chances with Black Badge on your own.”

He held a look of barely suppressed anger.

“Yeah blackmail,” she said. “Doesn’t feel good does it.”

“You can keep that if you want, it was evidence when you gave it back to me anyways,” she continued as she walked towards the door. “Good day Agent Dolls.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On a side note, Waverly's reaction to Bass Reeves in this is what my reaction was. I first heard about him in the documentary series Gunslingers which is great and also has an episode about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday if you're interested. He's just so awesome and I hope we haven't seen the last of him.


	7. Protectors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that last episode was great overall. The backstory on Bobo was awesome and it's going to be cool to have him back on the show. The Waverly stuff was interesting too and even though I'm not entirely convinced Bobo's her father because that might just be what they want us to think the stuff between them was awesome too. As usual my annoyance was with Dolls and his relationship with Wynonna. I knew it was too much to hope for that he would die with Juan Carlos but even then I never expected him and Wynonna to end up in bed together at the end of the episode. I don't even like their friendship most of the time as evidenced by the last chapter and their relationship has never been anywhere near what they're making it. In my opinion Dolls has only ever served to handicap Wynonna and stop her from becoming the hero she could be. Granted I don't even think they've written Waverly/Haught in a believable way and that's this fandom's baby so maybe I should lower my expectations. Doc/Rosita on the other hand is my favorite relationship on this show right now and I'm glad there was more of that. Anyways I'm also confused as to how exactly the revelations in this episode and Bobo's actions in season 1 match up and since season 1 in my opinion was much better overall I hope we get more answers soon. As of now here's what I think went through his mind the first time he saw Wynonna as the heir because there's no way at that point you can convince me that he still thought his "guardian angel" was Waverly. I was listening to Otherside by The Red Hot Chili Peppers while writing this.

Bobo Del Rey had lived a long life, a life much longer than any human being should be forced to endure, and he had seen and committed acts of cruelty that he had never imagined were even possible once upon a time. Dying, going to Hell, and resurrecting over and over again had a way of warping one’s sense of morality and there was nothing better for someone such as himself to occupy their time doing than to try and find a way to make it to the top of the Revenant heap. During this cycle he had finally managed to secure his position at the top through a series of grand promises and uneasy alliances. He had thought that there was nothing left that the world could throw at him that could surprise him, especially when it came to the Earps and their curse in particular. This current generation of Earps however seemed to always find a way to keep him guessing.

Waverly of course had been the first, he had been expecting to meet the Waverly of his initial dying moments throughout all of his resurrections and when he finally found her drowning in that frozen lake he knew that he owed it to her to pull her out. She was much too young to have visited his past self already at that point so he deemed it his responsibility to protect her until she was old enough. He came to her again in the form of an imaginary friend and slowly worked to gain her trust, he had been good with kids in his first life and it felt nice to use those skills again. It quickly came to his attention that the biggest threat to her safety laid in the abuse of her father and oldest sister. If attacking the Homestead, killing Ward Earp, and capturing Willa Earp also allowed him a reprieve from Earp interference in his plans to get himself and his Revenant brethren out of Purgatory for good then that was just icing on the cake.

Willa Earp herself then proceeded to surprise him by actually managing to fall in love with him and somehow getting him to fall in love with her too. She was drawn into his protection too and throughout her captivity he tried to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. Ward Earp had also turned his abuse onto her, particularly after her mother left him, and she had had a childhood full of expectations and responsibilities that she never quite lived up to in her father’s eyes. Under his own watchful gaze she grew into a fine young woman, perhaps a little colder than most normal people, but she grew up loved and that’s more than her father could have ever given to her. Her capture by Constance Clootie was not the first injustice visited upon him by the woman known as the Stone Witch nor would it be the last, but it had been his biggest failure and he receded in on himself to focus solely on his means of escape should she ever return to escape with him. Nevertheless he vowed to get revenge one day.

Wynonna Earp had never pinged his radar too hard outside of the obvious. With Willa out of the picture she was the one who would become heir and he knew that one day she may be the biggest obstacle to his plans. She suffered abuse at the hands of her father the same as her mother and sisters but she never allowed herself to be broken by it. As capable as he was of providing protection to Waverly and Willa it quickly became clear to him that Wynonna Earp didn’t need the kind of protection he had to offer. There was a different spark inside of her, a fire that refused to die out, and he knew that when the time came she would be a formidable opponent. Following his attack on the Homestead and her subsequent killing of her own father things changed for her. The townspeople in their ignorance called her crazy and a murderer, but he knew the truth, she was a protector just like he was.

Her method of protection was very different from his, where he protected by staying near the things he wanted to protect she protected by staying away. By the time she actually left Purgatory for good Willa had been taken and he hadn’t been keeping as close of an eye on the Earp sisters that remained, but he heard it through the grapevine just the same. The departure of the new heir from Purgatory gave his plans even more room to breath so he welcomed it. With Wynonna Earp out of the picture he operated with a free hand, only curtailing his plans when Constance Clootie involved herself, and even then only to lay the groundwork for his ultimate revenge. He worked to solidify his power and slowly his trailer park kingdom gained more and more control over the local politicians and law enforcement. It was only a matter of time before his power bordered on absolute.

Wynonna Earp, as it turned out, was bound to surprise him just as much as her two sisters had, it just ended up taking her much longer. He knew she was back in Purgatory almost as soon as she came back and knew very much what she was coming to ask him the day she and her marshal partner strolled into his trailer park like they owned the place. As the script read they would come in and ask him questions about one murder or another of which he would deny any knowledge of and then send them on their way. It was a pointless dance but one that their roles as Earp heir and self-proclaimed leader of Purgatory’s Revenants forced them into. What he hadn’t expected from the encounter was the face of the woman that greeted him, a face that he had never expected to see again.

There standing before him looking undaunted and even slightly annoyed by all the guns pointed in her direction by his minions was his guardian angel, the woman who had eased him through his final moments and gave him the name Bobo. Throughout his many lives he had always associated that face and those actions with the name Waverly, it was why he had protected her all those years as an imaginary friend, and for a moment he was confused to find that face on her older sister until it dawned on him. Wynonna Earp was a protector and in that moment where she found herself at his side during his first death she had used the offer of protection on his part to protect her sister. The face alone was enough to stop him in his tracks but that realization of the entirety of who this woman before him was made him momentarily speechless before they both settled into their defined roles.

That moment obviously hadn’t happened for her yet as she treated him with suspicion and anger so he couldn’t bring it up to her in casual conversation, but he did find himself being far more amenable to their questions and requests to search his trailer than he had initially intended on being. It was the least he could do for this woman with the face of an angel that was so much like him, this woman who had made him what he was. She had told him that they would meet again and over the years he had lost faith that that would actually happen, Waverly Earp hadn’t grown up to be the woman he had initially pictured her to be, but she was here now and she was Wynonna Earp. So he let them into his trailer and he answered their questions with more than a firm denial because he owed more to this woman than she’d ever know. 

All the while he knew that it could come crashing down around him. Wynonna Earp was a protector and whether she had acknowledged it to herself yet or not this town was under her protection. At the end of the day he knew all too well how far a protector would go to protect what they cared about. The eventual confrontation would produce fireworks and as confident he’d like to be he wasn’t sure who would have the edge. In another time and place where things weren’t what they were he was sure that they would get along, maybe even become friends or something more, but this wasn’t that time or place. He was a Revenant, the Revenant leader, and she was the Earp heir and no amount of commonality could get in the way of what that meant. Wynonna Earp and Bobo Del Rey were both protectors, but who and what they wanted to protect would ultimately lead them apart not together.


	8. Our Pasts Don't Define us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the past couple of episodes have been alright. This last episode in particular was pretty great all around though I do think it provided a resolution to the Haught/Waverly problems too soon. And I guess Rosita's just the go to when the writers want to make a third wheel in a relationship they're pushing. Anyways speaking of Rosita her being a Revenant is pretty awesome. I kind of guessed it back when they first introduced her because how else would Doc know her but it had fallen from my mind by the time the reveal happened. I'm kind of upset with Waverly for just spewing her secret like she did, I know she was under duress but that was still a really uncool thing to do. And Wynonna went full Dolls and threatened her into helping them which I think was a little out of character but understandable given the situation as I lay out in this chapter. So here's a chapter of Wynonna and Rosita making up because I really enjoy the small bits of their friendship we got and I want to see more. And there's some Nedley-Wynonna bonding in this because why not. He's been so good this season and I'm glad he didn't end up dying. Also we're just going to pretend that all the evil Blacksmith making Wynonna disappear stuff didn't happen and that Waverly brokered some other deal to save Haught just for the sake of this chapter working. I was listening to Graduate by Third Eye Blind while writing this.

“Nicole’s okay,” Wynonna said as she moved the key in the lock of the holding cell. “We didn’t end up needing the antivenom but thank you for helping anyways.”

“Whatever,” Rosita said shoulder checking her as she moved out of the cell. “You made it pretty clear last time we talked how you feel about my help.”

“Ugh,” Wynonna sighed sliding down the wall to sit on the floor as she watched Rosita leave.

She deserved the cold shoulder, worse probably, after the way she treated the other woman. She hadn’t meant to let herself turn into that person she turned into in Shorty’s, but the situation had been dire and she had panicked. Of course, in retrospect, it was obvious that Rosita would have helped if she had just asked, but in the moment she had had little room to maneuver and the threat had seemed like a good way to ensure success. When she had first accepted her responsibility as heir she had tried to operate with a code, she needed to kill Revenants in order to break the curse and she would, but at the end of the day they were people too and no matter the bad they had done in this life or a past one she had given them a chance to make their peace before sending them to Hell. Somewhere along the way she had lost that and Rosita who had never done anything to draw her animosity had gotten the worst of it simply for being what she was. And in the end it hadn’t made one damn bit of difference how cold she’d been.

“Didn’t work out the way you had it pictured in your head did it,” a voice drew her eyes up from where they’d been looking at the floor, Sheriff Nedley’s voice.

“You have no idea,” she said, after all how could he.

“I have a pretty good one,” he said leaning against the far wall, cuts and bruises in various stages of healing.

At her confused look he elaborated, “Look I don’t know all about what you guys get up to around here but I know what you are and I know what she is and you don’t have to be a police officer to see where the problem lies there.”

“And I may also know a thing or two about prejudging someone before you get to know them,” he added after a short pause.

It was the closest thing to an apology she’d ever gotten from him and she couldn’t help the small smile that found its way onto her face. If the Wynonna who had found herself being arrested by this man on an almost constant basis could see them now she’d be hopelessly confused, but things were different now. In the aftermath of his speech in her favor that had managed to assuage an angry mob and allowed her to stop Bobo and Willa before they could throw the town into even more chaos than it already was they had actually been on pretty good terms. And now he was trying to give her some manner of advice in regards to her situation with Rosita not by berating her for screwing up for the thousandth time but by acknowledging one of his own mistakes and passing on what he had learned from said mistake. A brief flash that this was what a father did was pushed back into a secret corner of her mind to deal with later before she did something stupid with it.

“Yeah,” she said getting up. “I guess you’re right.”

“We haven’t always seen eye to eye Wynonna,” he said. “But you’ve saved my life twice now and you’ve saved this town more times than that.”

“You’re a good person Wynonna,” he said putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve proven that.”

“Thank you,” she said barely suppressing another smile.

“And Miss Bustillos deserves a chance to prove herself a good person too,” he said. “Despite her slightly more than human nature.”

“What about the curse,” she said. “I have to kill her to end it regardless of how good or bad of a person she is.”

“You’ll figure something out,” he said. “You always do.”

“We aren’t defined by our past Wynonna,” he finished. “Something we both should have realized a lot sooner.”

With that he awkwardly patted her shoulder and bid her farewell, he had made his point and this was probably just as awkward for him as it was for her. She appreciated his words though, there weren’t many times throughout her life where she could remember someone telling her that she was a good anything. She wasn’t sure if she completely believed him about her being a good person, but the crux of what he had been trying to tell her rang true enough. She needed to fix this, owed it to both Rosita and herself to fix this, and she had no right to be mad at Waverly for jumping to such drastic measures to ensure Nicole’s safety when she herself had resorted to such cold tactics. With newfound determination she began making her way to Shorty’s still unsure of what exactly she was going to say but knowing that she couldn’t afford to put it off.

“Rosita,” she said cautiously as she sat down at one of the barstools. “Can we talk?

“I’m not sure that would be a good idea while I’m on the clock,” Rosita said while continuing to serve drinks.

“You’re banging the boss, I’m sure he won’t mind if you step out for a few minutes,” she said. “And we really need to talk.”

“Fine,” the other woman said with a huff. “Let’s take this outside.”

A distance much shorter than Wynonna would have preferred to gather her thoughts now that the other woman was directly in front of her found her pacing in front of a slightly annoyed looking Rosita who leaned against the outside wall.

“So, out with it,” Rosita said. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Look I’m sorry for what I said before,” she began. “For threatening you.”

“That’s really not necessary,” Rosita said seeming unconvinced.

“No, no, it is,” she said. “We were becoming friends and I think I ruined that.”

“I forced you into a situation you weren’t comfortable with and that’s not okay,” she continued. “So I’m sorry that I hurt you and I hope we can try to start over again.”

“I’m a Revenant, you’re the Earp heir,” Rosita said. “I should have never listened to Doc when he told me to start getting to know you guys in the first place.”

“You’re a Revenant and I can’t guarantee that one day it won’t come down to you facing the barrel of my gun,” she said. “But you also helped us, even when you barely knew us, and I shouldn’t have rubbed it in your face like I did.”

“Well thank you,” Rosita said. “I’m sorry too, that you didn’t hear it from me.”

“I get it, should’ve gotten it before,” she said. “I never used to want to tell people that I was an Earp.”

“Because even without the supernatural side of it there were assumptions about who I was and what I stood for,” she continued. “And I shouldn’t have done that to you just because you’re a Revenant, I’ve met Revenants who weren’t all bad before.”

“You would have told me in your own time had Waverly not blurted it out to me,” she finished. “So, can we start again?”

“Hi, I’m Wynonna Earp,” she said sticking out her hand.

“I’m Rosita,” the other woman said reaching out hesitantly to shake it. “I’m a Revenant.”

“It’s good to have you on the team,” she said with a hint of a smile.

“It’s good to be a part of the team,” Rosita said smiling herself.

They weren’t perfect, just like she and Nedley weren’t perfect, but they were good now and had a chance to start over. She had let her emotions get the best of her and it had almost cost her a chance at a friend in the process. She had set a code for herself when she had started this whole thing and she needed to get back in the habit of following it. There were bad Revenants out there, but not all of them were looking to cause chaos, and there were worse things that she had to worry about now anyways. Maybe Rosita had been someone bad back in the time of her great great grandfather or maybe like Bobo she was an innocent person condemned to that cycle anyways. Either way she had done her best to help them since being brought into the fold and loyalty had to mean something. Their pasts didn’t define them.


	9. Shattered Illusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I feel like after so many instances of it happening I've come to expect shows that capture my attention for a season or 2 to feature questionable writing decisions eventually. Revolution season 2, Defiance season 2, Falling Skies after season 3, Warehouse 13 after season 3, Walking Dead from Beth's death until Glenn's death, even Killjoys and Dark Matter this year weren't really what I wanted. And this season wasn't The Magicians season 2 levels of disappointing, but it in no way lived up to what I expected given season 1 and the beginning of this season. It was almost like it was two different shows split six episodes a piece with the first half being significantly better. And then that finale was just such a conglomeration of terrible plot decisions that I didn't even know what do while live tweeting it. The baby storyline in general was stupid and not what I wanted out of this season, but at least when the baby had the potential of being half Revenant I could accept it. Now that they're implying it actually is Doc's I'm just left shaking my head. Bobo's return was wasted and you can say he's going to do more in season 3, but his actions in the finale just don't mesh with his season 1 actions at all and I'm kind of left wondering why they made such a big deal about his and Waverly's relationship if they were just going to make him willing to sell her off to a demon. And then there was Rosita. Now, I don't know, maybe I just have a thing for characters named Rosita because the Rositas in Wynonna Earp and Walking Dead both really captured my interest these last respective seasons. But just like the Walking Dead writers, the writers here had to ruin her character so I'm just kind of left with nothing. I mean it's not to the level of what the Magicians did with Julia and you can see my rant on that in my Magicians fic if you care but it was still pretty terrible. They pretty much made her into just another Revenant that Wynonna has to kill rather than the interesting character she could have been. But you know they've already screwed up Wynonna's character by continuing to make her more and more like Dolls so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Either way rant over and you're welcome to disagree. Here's me writing a post-finale Rosita though and I hope you like it. I was listening to 45 by Shinedown while writing this.

Rosita sat clutching her coat tightly around her as she tried to accumulate more warmth than the small fire that her current situation allowed her could offer. It was cold, below freezing even, and the snow falling in sheets all around her offered her no hope that the temperature would be rising significantly any time soon. She could have lit a larger fire, one that could actually warm her up even without a coat, but the light could give her position away and alert some form of authority that there was someone squatting just this side of civilization. While the local police wouldn’t necessarily have any reason to arrest her, they’d probably be more concerned than anything, the wrong officer or the wrong word said could bring Wynonna Earp onto her trail in a heartbeat and that was the last thing she needed.

When she was a little girl she had listened in wonderment as her father recanted to her the thrilling adventures of the latest dime novel. Heroic stories of life on the frontier, a frontier of myths even back then, had made her yearn for an adventure of her own. If this, losing her parents and becoming a Revenant, was what her adventure was always meant to be then she must have pissed someone higher up off at some point. Over the years she had tried to make the best of her lot, stayed out of the limelight and worked her way through two PhDs. That alone was more than she could have ever hoped to accomplish in her own time period. Earp heirs came and went all failing to break the curse and most importantly all failing to kill her. This current cycle could have gone just as well for her had fucking Doc Holliday never dragged his ass out of that well.

Doc Holliday, exactly the kind of charming womanizer that her parents had always warned her about and yet she had been stupid enough to let his charms actually work on her. He had told her to make nice with the Earp sisters, that they’d grow to like her just as much as he claimed to. She had tried, really tried, to put everything that told her it was a bad idea aside and make nice with them and for a while she had thought it was working. Trust wasn’t something she gave away easily, especially after what happened to her parents, but she had actually started to trust them. She hadn’t wanted to reveal what she was to Waverly in the way that it happened, but necessity had called for it and on the surface it had seemed to go well. Of course, her trust proved misplaced and Waverly didn’t even manage to keep her mouth shut for a week.

“Wynonna’s special,” Doc had said and even then she had known that deep down she was playing second fiddle. “You should get to know her.”

Wynonna was special, she had a certain poise and demeanor about her that made it seem like she could be the one to finally break the curse. Rosita was attached to her life, there was no getting around that, but they had all had more than their fair share of time on Earth and if it had come down to it she would have let Wynonna shoot her last. For a while she had lured herself into the illusion that they were actually friends, that she wouldn’t care about what she was only what she was doing, but that lie had gone down in smoke just like those fantasies of adventure she had had as a child did when her parents were gunned down. Dolls was just another wolf in sheep’s clothing whose only satisfaction in life came from killing the things he didn’t understand and he had somehow managed to sweet talk Wynonna under his thumb.

Wynonna didn’t see her as a friend, she only saw her in terms of what she could do for her. She was less than human, expendable, and so she was the perfect choice to play guinea pig when the situation called for it. Of course Dolls couldn’t let her sacrifice actually get any notice and he had to jump in and play the hero. And at the end of the day he was the one that got the credit while she was left without even an apology from Waverly for betraying her trust in the first place. Doc, Dolls, and Waverly, none of them 100 % human, and yet all of them more deserving of trust than she was simply because of the specific kind of more than human she was. She had never asked for this, never asked to be shot by Wyatt Earp, and yet here she was still taking shit for it 200 years later.

An overreaction, she supposed that in the eyes of some her actions in Shorty’s in the aftermath could be viewed that way, but when the people you thought were your friends instead turn out to be the people plotting your death there’s no other way you can go except to start looking out for yourself. Looking out for herself is what got her to where she was in the first place, what allowed her to survive this long without ever being sent to Hell, and she had been stupid to ever get away from that strategy. Stealing a baby wasn’t exactly something she had ever seen herself doing in her vision of that grand adventure, but beggars can’t be choosers especially when it comes to people who want you dead anyways. As she should have already known though, brash actions never pan out, and now she was again reaping the consequences of her own stupidity.

The snow was falling harder now, soon Purgatory would be the very picture of an idealistic small town in a snow globe and she’d have to move on to try and find somewhere insulated and dry to ride it out. Wynonna was currently distracted by the bigger fish that the supernatural world had to offer, but she’d be after her before too long. Her need to escape the clutches of Purgatory that had held her for so many years was more pressing than ever and while her initial attempt to gain collateral to offer to the powers that be had failed other opportunities still existed. Being a Revenant was her lot in life and she was going to play it out as far as she could. Wynonna Earp wasn’t going to get an easy shot at it now, no self-sacrifice on her part in an effort to help bring an end to the curse that trapped them all. No, Wynonna Earp had presented herself as an enemy and she was going to be treated as such.

Maybe Wynonna would actually manage to pull it off in the end, kill all of the Revenants and break the curse. Maybe Wynonna would manage to put a bullet between her eyes and send her down to the Hell that she probably deserved. Maybe that would actually be better than the existence she currently enjoyed. She had lived her life the last 200 years always knowing that the barrel of that gun would probably prove to be the last thing she ever saw and she wasn’t ready to relinquish that life without a fight. Wynonna Earp was coming for her and they were heading for a climactic end for one of them that the dime novelists would have been ecstatic to have come up with once upon a time. At the end of the day death at another Earp’s hands may be waiting for her around the next corner, but at least then Wynonna wouldn’t be able to hide behind her sarcasm and warm smile. At least then, for the first time in her life, friend and foe would be easily definable.


	10. Another In A Long List Of Goodbyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here were are again for another Wynonna Earp season. One of the few shows that actually seems to be able to avoid Syfy's "financial" cancellation ax. This season at least seems like it's an improvement over last season so far though whether or not it gets to season 1's level remains to be seen. Either way Dolls is dead and I honestly never saw that coming. Though I have my problems with his character I am going to miss him on the show. I think he was a great straight man to Wynonna's witty sarcasm in season 1 and had the potential for a good rebel type storyline when it came to Black Badge in season 2. Unfortunately we never got the Black Badge storyline in season 2 and instead he became a character that in my opinion just tried to control everyone, especially Wynonna. There's no doubt that he cared about her and their relationship is certainly less weird than her and Doc but that doesn't mean he wasn't a detriment to her both as a hero and as a person in general. She became too cold and that cold demeanor is what ended up causing the whole thing with Rosita. I'm hoping she can find herself again this season but that remains to be seen. Either way I guess I'm just going to have to headcanon a confrontation between them about what happened with Willa now. Anyways here's a fic tying Dolls's death and what looks to be Nedley's impending retirement together with a lot of the other stuff Wynonna's gone through. Nedley has been such a team dad this season and I think Wynonna's going to regret saying what she said if he does in fact retire. I was listening to A Place We Set Afire by Yellowcard while writing this. I hope you like it.

She’s standing against the frame of Nedley’s office door with her arms crossed giving the sheriff in question a look that oozes “I don’t want to be here”. The look he’s giving her in return isn’t setting her at ease though. Usually she can look to his calm, unwavering confidence in order to settle her own nerves, but now he almost looks resigned to whatever he’s about to say to her with possible hints of sadness and nervousness leaking through his guard, and that in of itself causes her own nervousness to bubble up to the surface. She tries softening her expression as he motions for her to close the door and take a seat across from him, but she knows it looks forced. She fights the urge to bolt from her seat when the whole situation begins to feel a little bit too much like a trip to the principal’s office.

“Wynonna,” he says. “I’ve been thinking about what you said before and you’re right.”

That in of itself causes her to perk up. It isn’t too often that anyone tells her she was right about something let alone Nedley.

The self-congratulating quip she stirs up in response dies on her tongue as he says, “This fight isn’t the kind of thing you can do half-assed.”

She knows what this is about.

“I’ve been doing this for so long that I’ve lost the fire,” he says. “I’ve become complacent.”

“And I didn’t want to admit it to myself that maybe all of the years of bullshit had finally caught up with me,” he continues. “But they have and you were right to call me out on it.”

“It’s time for me to step away, stop being a detriment to this fight,” he says definitvely. “Before something happens that can’t be taken back.”

“You’re not a detriment,” she barely manages to breathe out.

“I’ve already been grooming Officer Haught to take over these past few years,” he continues as if she hadn’t said anything. “She’ll be confused by the suddenness of the whole thing but I have no doubt she’ll make a fine sheriff in the end.”

“One more week,” he says running his fingers over his desk. “That’s what I’m giving myself to say goodbye then I’ll be out of your hair around here for good.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she says finding her voice despite the conflicting emotions bubbling inside of her.

“What,” he questions.

“That’s not what I meant,” she repeats. “When I said that.”

“Honestly I’m not even sure what I meant,” she continues. “Maybe to fire you up a little bit.”

“I was just so frustrated that that smug bastard from the county thought he could come in here with his slicked back hair and pressed suit and act like what we were doing here wasn’t important enough to warrant funding,” she rises to her feet at this point and begins pacing. “And I wanted you to fight him on it as much as I wanted to because I knew if I did it I’d screw it up.”

“Because that’s what you do, you talk to people and get them to trust you,” she stops in the middle of floor and turns to face him. “You fix things, you tried to fix me when I didn’t even want you to.”

“Me, I just shoot things,” she plops back down in her seat. “And say goodbye to the people I love apparently.”

“Wynonna, this was always going to happen,” he says in a tone that she knows is meant to be soothing. “You just helped me realize that it should happen sooner rather than later.”

“No,” she says jumping up from her seat again. “If you want to run away from this then you go ahead and do what you want.”

“Don’t try to use me to justify your own inadequacies though,” she slams the door behind her as she leaves his office and storms out of the police station.

There’s probably something demon related that needs her attention in the Black Badge office but there’s only one place she can be right now. Shorty’s beckons to her like a safe harbor. The moment she steps inside and breaths in the familiar smell of the old saloon she feels the tension start to leave her. Still, it isn’t enough so she goes over to the bar and orders some whiskey from a bartender she’s never seen before. This one is a blond haired kid with glasses who is probably barely old enough to drink what he’s serving and looks like he’s about to melt into a puddle if someone notices him too much. She understands all too well so she lets him be after he gives her her order. It makes her miss Rosita though. Rosita was always willing to lend an ear to whatever problems she was willing to talk about. She could really use that right now. Some advice from Shorty wouldn’t be turned away either. People like them are the reason she’s here though and she really doesn’t want to think about why she’s here. Instead she downs the shot quickly and orders another.

Shooting things and saying goodbye to the people she loves. It was more of the truth than she’d ever admit normally. She’s said goodbye to so many people over the years and there’s a small self-deprecating voice in her head that tells her that she’s weak for still letting it get to her after so long. That voice is more than drowned out though by the part of her that’s suffocating because of just how much it still fucking sucks. Her mother locked up in prison. Her father and Willa dead by her hand. Uncle Curtis dead. Shorty dead. Mercedes dead. Dolls dead. Alice sent away with Aunt Gus so that they won’t end up dead too. Rosita off God knows where probably plotting another attempt at revenge. And now Nedley was retiring. Nedley was retiring and the fear that coursed through her at the idea was not abating even seven drinks in. Maybe this was her punishment for leaving everyone else after her father’s death.

The truth was that despite her rebellious and borderline anarchic nature she was not comfortable with change. Challenging the status quo was all well and good as long as it didn’t affect anything important in her life. The life she had built as a child was shattered that night at the Homestead and she had thought that a change of scenery was the only way for her to find her calm again. Her life in Greece hadn’t been anything special but it wasn’t boring by any means and it provided the organized chaos that she craved. She had been so at peace there. Against her better judgement she had left it all behind to attend Uncle Curtis’s funeral and her life has been a whirlwind ever since. Becoming the Heir was hard enough of a change to get used to, she had never been one to accept much responsibility, but that coupled with the constant stream of goodbyes to people she loved was slowly grinding her down into a fine powder of fear and anxiety.

“Wynonna,” Waverly finds her a couple of hours later after she’s already gone way past buzzed. “It’s getting late, I’m here to take you home.”

“Waves,” she gestures widely with her arms. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Wynonna,” Waverly says pleadingly. “I’m just here to take you home.”

“You know I should have bought this place when it was up for sale,” she says struggling to get up from her seat and stumbling when she tries to take a few steps. “Then I’d never have to leave.”

“Doc’s running this place into the ground anyways,” she continues. “Says that the bar is losing money.”

“Which is bullshit right,” she takes a few more wobbly steps towards the door. “This place is always full.”

“You don’t think he’s skimming off the top do you,” the conspiratorial grin on her face is convincing in her mind.

“Wynonna,” Waverly scolds grabbing her by the arm. “Let’s go home before you make a scene.”

“Damn baby girl, when did you get so strong,” she says as she’s dragged towards the door. “I should let you push me around more often.”

“Wynonna,” Waverly begins pulling harder, the scowl on her face not managing to cover up her blush at that comment.

“So long assholes,” she says flipping the bird. “Seems like better company has finally found me.”

Waverly drags her to her car and drives her home with no further protest. She passes out on the couch and before she even knows it it’s the next morning and she’s waking up to blinding sunlight and a blistering headache. Waverly is sitting in a chair opposite her sipping a mug of hot chocolate.

“Ugh,” she says rubbing her hands over her face.

“Good, you’re awake,” Waverly says a little too cheerily. “Maybe now you can tell me what the hell last night was about.”

“I just wanted to get drunk and enjoy my night,” she says not sounding near as forceful as she had planned. “Is that so much to ask for after spending nine months carrying another human being around inside of me?”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Waverly says taking another sip. “Try again.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she tries.

“Oh it definitely matters,” Waverly says. “You don’t let yourself get that drunk unless something’s wrong.”

“So what happened,” Waverly continues. “Does it have anything to do with you storming out of Nedley’s office?”

“It’s nothing,” she says.

“It was enough to turn you into a bumbling drunk without a filter,” Waverly says sipping her hot chocolate again. “It wasn’t nothing.”

“Fine,” she says resigned. “Nedley’s retiring.”

“What,” Waverly says surprised.

“Yep,” she says. “He’s handing over the reigns to your girlfriend and riding off into the sunset.”

“Nicole’s going to be sheriff,” Waverly seems almost giddy.

“Yes,” she confirms.

“Mmmm,” Waverly says. “I don’t see a problem with that.”

“This isn’t about Nicole,” she begins before stopping herself, the words “it’s about me” dying on her tongue with an aftertaste of embarrassment.

“This isn’t about Nicole,” she begins again. “Of course I’m happy for her.”

“I just think that something I said to Nedley a few days ago in frustration contributed to his decision and I feel responsible for pushing him to retire before he was ready,” it’s as close to the truth as she’ll allow herself to say out loud.

“You shouldn’t feel responsible,” Waverly says in a tone she knows is meant to be comforting. “Nicole says he’s been grooming her to take over for a long time.”

“Yeah,” she says just wanting to get the conversation over with. “That’s what he said too.”

“See,” Waverly says cheerily. “You’re just being too hard on yourself.”

Thankfully the conversation ends there.

Nedley’s retirement ceremony takes place a week later. She shows up because there’s no way she’d ever let herself miss something this important, even if a part of her is screaming at her to run away. There’s an entire array of current and former officers on hand, most of whom she’s never seen before. What remains of the Black Badge Division is there too. Even Doc decided to show up out of respect for someone he deemed fit to hold the title of lawman. Nedley gives a speech thanking various people that had an impact on his career, including more than one good word for her which makes her skin crawl at the same time her lips curl into a small smile. He announces Nicole Haught as the next sheriff to a thunderous round of applause and she proceeds to give her own speech about how she’ll do her best to live up to the responsibility. The ceremony ends in another round of applause for both of them before everyone starts to file out to make their way to a nearby banquet hall for the afterparty.

“Wynonna,” Nedley’s voice stops her from making her own quiet exit.

“Yeah,” she says turning to face him.

“I know you think I’m only doing this because of you,” he says. “And yes maybe I planned on having a few more months, but I’ve made my peace with this; I’m happy.”

“That’s not why I,” she begins to say before stopping herself and casting her eyes to the floor.

“I know that too,” he says reaching out to pat her on the shoulder. “Which is why I wanted to make it clear that my door is always open to you whenever you need it to be.”

If they were hugging people she’s almost certain she would hug him right now. Instead she nods her head slowly and meets his eyes again.

“Good,” he pats her shoulder a few more times.

A small, hopeful smile appears on her face as he turns and walks away. Maybe this time things didn’t have to change that much. Maybe this time she didn’t actually have to say goodbye. The self-deprecating voice from earlier certainly thinks that she’s just deluding herself thinking that. Deep down she knows that the possibility of something coming in and ruining everything again is extremely high. For now though she’s willing to allow herself to hope against hope for something better, just this once.


End file.
